Heidelberg 1999 – scientific programme

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GR: Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 3: Grundlagen der klassischen Relativität

GR 3.1: Talk

Monday, March 15, 1999, 17:40–18:00, AM1

On the foundations of the Lorentz transformations in General Relativity — •Udo Schelb — FB Physik, Universit"at Paderborn

Usually the Lorentz transformations are derived as coordinate transformations between inertial frames in a flat spacetime. There is a huge literature about their derivation, e.g. looking for the most convincing set of underlying principles or discussing the possibility of experimental tests of these principles, and sometimes questioning the validity of local Lorentz invariance. We demonstrate that the Lorentz trans- formations already emerge in theories which aim to give an operational foundation to the general-relativistic spacetime. There they come up as a necessary consequence if no more is done than: (1) using so-called radar coordinates based on light signals, and (2) using general clock-like parametrizations of observer worldlines as operational basis for the spacetime metric. This opens up a completely new point of view on many of the problems dealt with in the mentioned literature.